District Eleven Supervisor Candidates List Top Priorities If Elected

To have a clear understanding of their campaign platforms, The Light asked all five District Eleven supervisor candidates to submit a list of their top 10 priorities if elected. It has been edited for style.

Kimberly Alvarenga

Create more parking with diagonal parking by pushing San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to do a district-wide survey to identify appropriate streets where diagonal parking could create more parking spaces and relieve crowding.

Support our working families by expanding free universal pre-school as part of SF Unified School District. Adding pre-k for four year-olds to our existing school system will ensure all kids have an equal chance to succeed and will give a much needed financial break to struggling families.

Work with district residents to implement a moratorium on pot clubs within the district. Work with colleagues on the Board of Supervisors and the mayor to create a citywide plan that doesn’t disproportionately harm District Eleven, taking into account potential new statewide regulations.

Invest in our commercial corridors to support vibrant shopping streets through supporting anchor businesses, creating a Mission Street community benefits district and, working with residents, the historic churches and businesses in the area, develop a Broad-Randolph commercial corridor plan.

Increase service on the M-line and local bus routes, and ensure Ocean View-Merced Heights-Ingleside neighborhoods aren’t negatively impacted by the transit reconfigurations at Park Merced. Keep local bus lines connecting our neighborhoods and serving our residents, by expanding frequency and ensuring we don’t lose more stops.

Develop 100 percent affordable housing for our District Eleven low- and middle-income families and seniors. Community efforts have already identified 10 – 15 potential sites, and I will work with community groups to secure our best options during my first term, including revising zoning laws on our commercial corridor to encourage more affordable housing and activate shopping streets.

Ensure that our District Eleven parks and public spaces receive their equitable share of the city budget and resources. Bring back full staffing to our Recreation and Park Department clubhouses to keep them open and make them our community centers again! Ensure that our parks are well maintained, by hiring more gardeners, particularly at John McLaren Park.

Prioritize pedestrian safety by creating crosswalks at t-intersections in the Excelsior, and expand the improved crosswalk program in the OMI on Broad-Randolph.

Ensure smart policing by getting beat cops out of their cars and walking our neighborhoods and getting to know local merchants and residents.

Ensure that RPD finally invests in the renovation of the Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse, and commit to open it for public use by 2017. We need the Car Barn to be a vibrant community arts center that serves our neighborhoods and families.

Francisco Herrera

Housing Security: Prevent unjust evictions of our families, protect existing housing from predatory speculators and produce affordable housing for families who have been pushed to live in their cars and forced to borrow living room space with friends. Our plan: work with non-profit developers to produce affordable housing; develop education around and make funds available for home-ownership programs; establish the “right of first refusal” for renters when their buildings are sold, and fund a program to assist tenants in jointly buying their building through a land trust. I will work with other district supervisors to stop luxury apartments proposals at the planning commission and turn them around into affordable housing for working-class families in order to stop the exodus from other neighborhoods into District Eleven.

Stop Regressive Taxes: I will work to control rising fees like parking tickets that are really regressive taxes that punish working people and, protect people on fixed incomes from property tax hikes they are now experiencing based on the inflated value of today’s home sales. I will work to close loopholes for corporations to bring much more revenue to the city.

Revitalize Business Corridors: I will preserve the Geneva Avenue business corridor, starting east of Mission Street for working families, not for gentrification. This means accessing city, state and federal funds to help family-owned businesses have cash flow and to obtain credit to refurbish and open small business enterprises, while working with merchants and organizations like Mission Federal Credit Union in the Excelsior, community-based realtors, and ethical lending agents to help people living on the edge find the support they need.

Save the Farm: I will work with the Mission Terrace Land Preservation Committee to save the only commercial local farm we have in the city, as well as work to contain the flooding that occurs in the area. Regardless of the decision on Sept. 28 I commit to continue supporting MTLPC in its efforts to continue urban farming and healthy living.

Full-service Grocery Store in OMI: I have already been speaking with possible stores who do not find it affordable to establish a full service grocery store because they don’t see it as a lucrative project. I will continue to work with local regional farms to bring in much needed fresh vegetables to the neighborhood.

Clean and Secure Parks and Gardens: Starting at Delano and Geneva, Merced Heights, and Crocker Amazon Playground, I will work with other supervisors and neighbors to hire more gardeners and staff to secure safe and clean parks.

Make Muni Affordable and Safer for Riders and Operators: Prioritize the health and safety of muni operators, the protection of seniors and children and lower costs for riders in general. Play an active role in the design of the M-line so it respects and responds to needs of seniors and families that use the service. I will also continue to push for improvements at Balboa Park BART.

Noise Pollution and Air Quality: Work with neighbors around Gladstone in Excelsior who have already begun trying to make the airport reduce noise pollution.

Education: Support Excelsior Science Project and the YMCA to reinforce children’s education. Work with Kids First and the OMI community collaborative to secure main goals this year, including working with friends at San Francisco Foundation to make our big dreams a reality.

Urgency: We are in a crisis situation and need results as soon as possible. ASAP. Therefore I propose solutions that are Affordable, Safe, Accessible, Clean. The runaway market situation was created by an unresponsive and complicit City Hall. The expulsion of over 130,000 San Franciscans, just in the last five years and the attempts to displace the Farm exemplify this threat to which we will respond as a community. Only smart growth, based on people before profits, community-based planning, effective leadership, and resourceful management of the budget can stop the threat. We can stay and flourish and secure healthy living for our children and grandchildren. That is livability and a little bit of heaven.

Magdalena De Guzman

Transportation Congestion: Going back to drawing board redraw improvement of the traffic congestion on Geneva Corridor from Mission and Geneva to the Interstate 280 on-ramp and off ramps at Balboa Park BART station. Conduct a study on the density and slowdowns of traffic in afternoon traffics 3 – 7 pm. This includes examining Muni schedules of both streetcars and buses on how to alleviate heavy commuter overcrowded.

District Eleven commuters and Daly City residents are better served by having a new BART station between the Balboa Park and the Daly City stations. Hold hearings to hear testimony from commuters about building a new station at the intersection of San Jose, Alemany and Sagamore. High-density housing on both sides of the boundary will lower the overcrowding that exists at both stations.

The mayor’s Sept. 19 announcement to build 114 units of permanent affordable housing in the Excelsior is gigantic first step to improve housing affordability for working families. Not nearly enough to accommodate the expanding population in the district. Home ownership is 63 percent of total housing. Increasing housing stock of rent base and home ownership will be the defense against gentrification and displacement due to expanding development. I will make my priority to work with mayor’s office to advocate more money to insure permanent affordable housing continues over thousand units during my term.

Parking is a major problem in District Eleven. There are to few parking spaces to accommodate the residents throughout the neighborhood streets. I will write legislation based on hearings that I will hold with the SFMTA and residents. I will request a feasibility study on how to increase parking spaces through cost effective planning while delicately not removing existing housing but find examining vacant lots for more space.

Increase congregate meal sites in District Eleven. For a high senior population composed of homeowners and renters in San Francisco, there are only two. Once elected, I will give priority that meal sites are funded with non-profit community-based service agencies specializing in senior services.

In examining police reports, there appears to be an inordinate number of crimes ranging from vehicles vandalism, stolen vehicles, break ins, robberies, burglary and assaults. Safety is a priority concern that residents feel free from any crimes. The visibility of police presence is an important crime deterrent to catch criminals. I would have Ingleside Station implement a community policing where patrolmen walk beats during the day and night in identifiable hot spots. Second, crime prevention education to teach pro-active approaches to residents. Institute more SAFE neighborhood watches to residents and shopkeepers to keep an eye in their fellow neighbors and homeowners.

The trash and garbage on the streets is the biggest complaint from all corners of the district. The Public Works trucks are constantly picking up garbage dumped by fellow citizens. I would lead a campaign and mobilize citizens to conduct monthly clean ups where debris and trash exist. I would institute a hot line to report the dumping of the garbage so it can be monitored. The campaign would be joint with Public Works to educate the citizens of how to have old furniture, dangerous chemicals like paint and pesticides for disposal.

District Eleven has the most numerous children of any district in San Francisco. The $9.6 billion budget is a huge benefit to all citizens but is it fairly parceled out to help all districts? District Eleven is a district that falls below equity to receive funding for social and health services. More must be done to improve the quality of life for working families and their children. Existing childcare and youth programs can improve with greater funding especially with an expanding population that includes undocumented immigrants and poor families. Particularly related to education where after schools provide quiet learning programs for children to do homework and play safely near their homes.

McLaren Park is the second largest park in the city. A huge piece of real estate, it has an amphitheater, golf course, lake, picnic areas and playgrounds. In comparison to Golden Gate Park it falls below its potential what it can be. I want to lead a campaign to make it reach the recreational treasure it can to benefit southeast and south central San Francisco. Paying attention to the forests and trails with added children park with carousal will make it wonderful resource.

Ahsha Safai

Revitalize the Commercial Corridors on Mission Street, Geneva Avenue and Broad Randolph: To accomplish this, we need concerted investment of both public and private funds and must put together a Community Benefits District for these corridors to facilitate this process. This plan will require help from both the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development and multiple City agencies including the Planning Department, the Department of Public Works, and SFMTA to name a few.

Revitalize and Fully-rehabilitate the Geneva Car Barn: We have to get the mayor and RPD staff to agree to put this historic gem in the 2018 Park Bond as this building could become one of the city’s premier performing art and cultural spaces. The city’s leadership must agree that the neighborhood with the highest — or second highest — number of children under the age of 18 deserve this type of investment.

Create a Moratorium on Medical Cannabis Dispensaries along our District Commercial Corridors and Require They Reinvest in Their Neighborhoods: There are currently five MCD’s that serve District Eleven, which is sufficient for our district. We have spent far too much energy stopping additional clubs from opening, rather than focusing on attracting restaurants and family serving businesses to the area. We need to create a local tax that requires MCD’s to invest 25 percent of their profits in the immediate neighborhoods that they are located in as well as require owners to have lived in San Francisco for at least the past five years. This will work to mitigate some of the impacts of these businesses.

Create a Citywide Fully-funded Universal Pre-school Program for Children Age Four-years: To truly address the achievement gap for African-American and Latino students we must invest in early childhood education as well as work to make San Francisco more family friendly. This can be achieved with the passage of a few of the revenue measures on the November ballot, such as the soda tax and the property transfer tax.

Create a Citywide Program to Address the Housing Crisis for Working Families, Those making between 55 percent – 120 percent of Area Median Income: To realize this goal for this income range, we need to 1) offer density bonuses 2) allocate some of the affordable housing bond money already passed 3) mandate that private developers offer housing for this income range 4) increase the allocation of down payment assistance for those wishing to purchase their own home.

Host a Traffic and Parking Summit with SFMTA to Increase the Number of Parking Spaces Through Reconfiguring Parking and Traffic Calming Through Speed Bumps, Bulb Outs and Round-abouts: We have to address this concern as thousands of people are frustrated that they can’t park in front of their homes and are constantly in fear of accidents and people speeding through their neighborhood streets.

Increase annual funding for Department of Public Works to Address the Myriad Problem Areas that Experience Illegal Dumping, Overgrowth and Lack of Landscaping and Street Paving: Street tree maintenance will be funded if we pass the initiatives that are on the ballot this November, but in case they are not, we need to allocate money from the general fund as well as consistently contribute to Public Works’s budget to enhance cleaning and greening services in our neighborhoods.

Open a District Office: I will find a way to open an official office to make City Hall more accessible to all citizens of District Eleven, so they don’t have to travel to City Hall to let their voices be heard all the timed.

Appoint more of our District Eleven neighbors to city boards and commissions: We have very few commissioners that hail from District Eleven and we need to address this inequity to ensure that all areas of San Francisco have the same opportunity to be heard.

Create more shelter beds, navigation centers, med/psych hospital beds and supportive housing for the chronically homeless: There are multiple initiatives on this November’s ballot that will increase funding for homeless individuals and we need to prioritize getting people out of encampments and off of the streets so that supportive services in all forms can be provided to them.